Everything You Should Know About Tasting Menus

Tasting menus are a strange contradiction-filled curiosity in the culinary world. Though a relatively novel culinary standard that has become popular in little more than half a century, they have an origin that traces back centuries. Though they are seen by some as the epitome of sophisticated, discerning dining, they are seen by others as the product of tyrannical chefs who are unwilling to offer compromise or choice to diners. And, though tasting menus can feel rigid and formal, with rules and set piece dishes at certain points in the meal, they are also ultimate expressions of culinary creativity and craft. 

Advertisement

This article will take a close look at tasting menus, unpacking what they are, their history, and how they are used by chefs in a way that is often different from other forms of dining. It will examine the structural elements of a tasting menu, including wine pairings, pricing and value, and dining etiquette. Finally, it will explore some recent trends in tasting menus and what the future holds for this unique way to enjoy food.

What is a tasting menu?

A tasting menu is a multiple-course meal curated by a chef. It's usually between four and 20 courses, served as small tasting portions. Like a painter's blank canvas, a tasting menu provides a medium for a chef to showcase their culinary expertise and creativity, providing diners with not just a meal, but a meaningful dining memory and thought-provoking experience. Because of their role as a showcase of talent, tasting menus are typically the offering of premium dining spots and chefs who want to express something through their food. Tasting menus often feature premium ingredients like truffle and caviar, served in an equally premium environment. Think classy restaurants with curated ambiance, attentive staff, and stylish furnishings. The price tag reflects the exclusivity of the experience.

Advertisement

However, tasting menus can take many forms, with varying motivations. Trishna in London offers a Michelin-star lunchtime tasting menu with three or four courses, whereas Ferran Adrià's final menu at El Bulli showcased the culinary talents of Ferran and his brother Albert over a staggering 49 courses. For Trishna, the intention is to attract time-poor Londoners to try their elevated Indian cuisine in a saturated city, whereas the Adrià brothers wanted to close what many believe to be the greatest restaurant with one final flourish. One thing is constant: A tasting menu features dishes over which the diner has little choice; it's all or nothing!

The origins of tasting menus

The tasting menu as we know it today came to be in the 1970s with the birth of nouvelle cuisine in France. "Haute cuisine," a term which is virtually synonymous with fine dining, had existed in France before this time, but generally focused on à la carte dining, an approach pioneered by Auguste Escoffier in the 1890s and which is still the norm in most restaurants today. In nouvelle cuisine, the birth of the modern tasting menu coincided with an evolution from rich, heavy dishes to more refined, seasonal cooking where presentation was paramount. Referred to in French as a menu dégustation, tasting menus allowed accomplished chefs to compress more ingredients, flavors, and culinary techniques into a single dining experience. 

Advertisement

Nouvelle cuisine wasn't the starting point for a fixed multi-course offering, however. In the 1970s, many celebrated French chefs such as Paul Bocuse visited Japan in search of culinary excellence, and were introduced to the concept of kaiseki, a traditional form of Japanese multi-course meal focusing on seasonality, beautiful presentation, and conveying a sense of place. Kaiseki has its origins in 16th century Japan, but found synergy with French nouvelle cuisine chefs who brought the tasting menu format of kaiseki back with them. Thanks to their prodigious culinary influence, the tasting menu format spread to fine dining restaurants around the world over the following decades.   

Why do tasting menus exist?

There are French dining formats that predate the tasting menu, such as prix fixe and the menu du jour. While these are forms of set menus, they differ from tasting menus because their purpose is to provide value to restaurant clientele and give restaurants flexibility to adapt their menu based on ingredient availability. This can benefit restaurants offering tasting menus, too: If customers can't choose what to eat, a restaurant can reduce food waste by producing only what will be consumed.

Advertisement

However, tasting menus typically sit at the other end of the culinary scale. Their existence is less about cost-saving and more about conveying meaning, transforming food from sustenance to art. Some chefs use tasting menus to showcase signature dishes, a kind of "best of" dining experience. Others test the boundaries of cuisine: Rasmus Munk's Alchemist in Copenhagen blends gastronomy with multisensory experience, featuring a 50-course meal with projections, storytelling, and creative concepts. Other chefs showcase a singular vision, such as Ángel León's three-Michelin-starred Aponiente in Spain, where the menu imagines a world with no land, only sea, serving plates featuring plankton, tuna tendons, and bioluminescent crab. Tasting menus convey pleasure and meaning through food, but they're often about more than food alone.

Advertisement

Breaking down a typical tasting menu

Although there's no set number of courses, tasting menus typically follow a fixed structure: snacks, starters, mains, desserts, and finally petit fours. Oli Soden, executive chef of menu development at Gategroup, explains the reason for this format: "It allows the chefs to showcase more techniques and a wider variety of proteins. As dishes are smaller and more frequent, the stakes are slightly lower doing something inventive, with the traditional a la carte structure sometimes stymying creativity as the pressure to please is greater." 

Advertisement

Snacks are intended to set the tone for the meal and are typically bitesize, while starters, Soden explains, "are slightly larger but no more than three bites. They can really solidify the experience the chef is trying to give the consumer." While snacks and starters can be served hot or cold, mains are usually served hot, and are slightly larger again — but still only a few bites per plate. Then follows the sweet section of the meal which consists of one or more desserts, followed by petit fours. "Petit fours are the last memory of a meal and can often form the perfect full stop," Soden explains. A perfect example of this is at Daniel Boulud's restaurant Daniel in Manhattan, where mini madeleines are served as the final bite.

Advertisement

Seasonal tasting menus and local ingredients

Tasting menus don't simply showcase a chef's best dishes or culinary-artistic vision. Tasting menus often evolve to accommodate the best produce of the season, even if some classic dishes remain year-round. Annwn, a wild food-focused fine dining restaurant in Pembrokeshire, United Kingdom, offers a tasting menu where dishes, or ingredients within dishes, vary based on what is in season. A dessert may be garnished with foraged wood sorrel at the end of spring and with honeysuckle flowers in summer.

Advertisement

In regions with rich food history and culture, tasting menus often feature local ingredients and traditional recipes from the area. This creates a sense of place when dining, something made famous by Noma's foraging-focused offering. In Mallorca, the team at restaurant Ca Na Toneta pride themselves on championing their local network of suppliers and artisans from the island. This commitment extends beyond their food into the artwork on display, and the locally made crockery; the result is something truly authentic and meaningful.

Some tasting menus are designed specifically with seasonality or a special ingredient in mind. Among the most lavish examples are tasting menus centered around seasonal fresh truffles, such as those offered by Restaurant Bruno in France. In Spain, restaurant El Campero offers a tasting menu devoted to Andalusia's famous bluefin tuna.

Advertisement

The Price Tag: What Are You Paying For?

Ordering a tasting menu can be pricey. Premium ingredients like caviar, complex multi-day food preparations, an elite environment, and a kitchen team at the top of their game contribute to price tags that make the average customer balk. The tasting menu at a one Michelin star restaurant costs on average $165 — and that's just the food!

Advertisement

Much has been said about the price of tasting menus, especially when customers have little say in what they're eating. In 2024, an influencer slammed restaurant Mugaritz in Spain, complaining she paid over $1,000 for a tasting menu that included a course where she had to lick oil from an artificial belly button. Although this criticism stands if you're just looking for a filling dinner, one can argue that's missing the point. "Skill should be paid for," explains Oli Soden. "You're not paying for the chef's ego. You're paying [for] the salaries of highly skilled workers and the knowledge and years of dedication it takes to have the perfect balance of creativity and operations to run a tasting menu." Despite criticism, tasting menus are still going strong because customers are willing to pay for them. Whether they choose tasting menus as a status symbol or because they're true gourmands is a moot point. More affordable options are emerging, such as Six by Nico in London, whose tasting menu costs just £50 ($61) for six courses, and changes every six weeks.

Advertisement

The role of wine pairings

Tasting menus often come with an option to add a wine pairing. Selected by a sommelier, a wine pairing can greatly enhance a dining experience. Rachel Dickinson, sommelier and founder of Cellar Mouse, explains: "Pairing the right wine with your meal can enhance the flavors, textures, and overall enjoyment of both the food and the drink." Wines are chosen to pair with specific dishes, and a well-chosen flight of wines can elevate a tasting menu into something truly unforgettable.

Advertisement

A wine flight allows restaurants to serve wines that may be less well-known or too expensive for customers to consider ordering a bottle. The cost of adding special wines can be offset by including less costly wines that still pair wonderfully with the food. There's no set rule for how many wines are served, but you won't usually receive wine with every course as the price would become prohibitive, and customers may get too drunk to enjoy their food! Every wine drinker has different preferences, but a wine pairing is an opportunity for discovery — you put your faith in the sommelier just as you do in a chef. Of course, you can forgo the wine pairing and order by the bottle or glass instead, plus wine-alternative pairings, such as sake and non-alcoholic drink pairings, are becoming more common.

Advertisement

Dining etiquette: How to enjoy a tasting menu

The idea of a tasting menu in a fine dining restaurant can be somewhat daunting. What should you wear? How long will it last? Do you have to finish everything? Though traditional fine dining establishments offering tasting menus may have a smart casual, or even formal dress code, there are plenty where you can wear whatever you want. Generally, the most important thing is that you wear what makes you feel comfortable in a premium environment — if you're in a swanky restaurant, you might feel out of place in a tracksuit! 

Advertisement

Because of the many courses and the emphasis on a luxurious experience, tasting menus usually take more time to complete than a typical restaurant meal. A short, efficiently run tasting menu may take under two hours, but extravagant menus over 10 courses can last around four hours. Rachel Dickinson has some advice: "Make sure you've allocated enough time for the experience within your schedule. The experience should not be rushed." When you're paying handsomely, it's worth taking your time to enjoy. Finally, it's true that some kitchens will be unimpressed with unfinished plates coming back from the dining room, but there's no obligation to finish everything. The customer has purchased the food, and if they're full or don't like something, that's their right.

Advertisement

Tasting menus and dietary restrictions

In many restaurants offering tasting menus, dietary restrictions are yet another opportunity to showcase their commitment to delivering excellence. It's unlikely that you'll be able to request something unrealistic or unreasonable, such as a vegetarian tasting menu at a seafood restaurant, but fine-dining restaurants will often go to great lengths to accommodate allergies and other dietary restrictions. 

Advertisement

"It's always important to let the restaurant know if you have any dietary restrictions in advance," explains Rachel Dickinson. Not letting them know until you arrive can create a lot of pressure as staff scramble to adapt or adjust your carefully planned and portioned meal to meet your requirements. And if there's something you simply don't like, or would like cooked differently? Dickinson explains: "Enjoy the tasting menu as it is. I would suggest not asking them to make modifications to dishes." There's a good reason for this: Tasting menus are designed so that the courses and ingredients in each course work together harmoniously and flow naturally. Requesting modifications won't only risk altering the experience for the worse, but it can also irritate the team making your food, and though that shouldn't impact your experience, those bad feelings can spill over to your experience.

Advertisement

Global interpretations beyond French cuisine

Although the modern tasting menu has decidedly French origins, a legacy of which is the continued use of many French terms in fine dining: petit fours, amuse bouche, sommelier, maître d', á la carte, and many more. However, the tasting menu format quickly spread to become the norm in top restaurants in every corner of the globe. Just as French chefs reinterpreted the Japanese dining format of kaisaki in creating the tasting menu, so too have chefs from other nations taken the tasting menu and made it their own. 

Advertisement

Restaurant Bo.TiC, a two-Michelin-star restaurant in the Spanish province of Catalonia, serves tasting menus dedicated to elevated reinterpretations of classic Catalan dishes. In fact, Spain has more of the world's best restaurants than any other country — and the majority of these pay deep homage to their nation's rich food heritage through their choice of ingredients, recipes, and culinary techniques. Similar examples exist in almost every country where fine dining is thriving.

Crafting a tasting menu

As tasting menus are a reflection of a chef's creative vision and culinary expertise, a lot of thought usually goes into planning it, then painstakingly testing the dishes and the flow of service. At Aponiente, for example, though the restaurant opens each year in March, the chef's senior team will return a month or more earlier than this to trial, revise, and map out the new season's tasting menu. This includes multiple full dry runs of the menu from start to finish, all before the doors have opened to customers. Doing this ensures that guests will have a seamless dining experience from the very first service with paying customers. However, a chef isn't only thinking about showing off their skills. It's vital they plan the costs carefully, making sure that the final price isn't going to be too high for their target customers or too low to turn a profit.

Advertisement

One common approach to crafting a tasting menu is to create a sort of narrative. How will the meal flow from course to course, taking customers on a culinary journey? The two Michelin-starred Voro in Mallorca offers a tasting menu that follows a narrative progression of the sun in the sky, for example. Conversely, some restaurants tweak or completely overhaul their tasting menu semi-regularly. This adds an element of surprise but means you might not get the food you were expecting from their website.

The rise of plant-based tasting menus

Over recent years, there has been a trend toward more plant-based tasting menus. The most high-profile pioneer of this was Eleven Madison Park, which was voted the world's best restaurant in 2017 before completely overhauling their business in 2021 to offer only a plant-based tasting menu. Though controversial, the move was a resounding success: Eleven Madison Park retained its three Michelin stars and has sparked a plant-based revolution in the fine dining world. 

Advertisement

Restaurant Reale was named Italy's best restaurant in 2022 and made the move to offer a fully vegetarian tasting menu in the same year. Even in France, the spiritual home of foie gras, restaurants like three-Michelin-starred Arpège in Paris offer a plant-based tasting menu, while Manon Fleury at Datil represents a new generation showcasing flexitarian tasting menus. Yasser Rios, professor of food technology and design at the Basque Culinary Center, explains this trend: "There's a general trend toward healthiness, from using less meat to non-alcoholic pairings." However, plant-based tasting menus can be tricky. "In my opinion, it's much more challenging to create a great plant-based menu than a traditional French one," Rios explains, noting that it also involves "teaching customers that a plant-based tasting menu doesn't mean you'll only be eating salads."

Advertisement

The future of tasting menus

There are plenty of vocal opinions both for and against tasting menus from experts on the subject. British newspaper The Telegraph claimed that 2024 would be the year tasting menus would go out of fashion, while The Guardian published an article the year before heralding the return of the tasting menu. The difference is in the approach: More restaurants are beginning to offer tasting menus that are more compact, more cost-effective, and less intimidating. 

Advertisement

Yasser Rios agrees: "Instead of lasting three and a half hours like Eleven Madison Park in New York, menus will become shorter in time and lighter. Something easier." This evolution recalls the less-formal menu du jour offerings that predate the 1970s rise of the modern tasting menu in France. Costs of labor and ingredients have continued to rise in recent years, and this stripped-back approach focuses on delivering value while reducing costs. There will always be a place for certain establishments to offer more traditional, extravagant, or formal tasting menus; what's clear is today's tasting menus are more varied and multi-faceted than ever.

Recommended

Advertisement